


anthem

by nowrunalong



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2017-01-11
Packaged: 2018-09-11 07:39:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8969989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nowrunalong/pseuds/nowrunalong
Summary: For the first nineteen years of her life, nothing happens. Nothing at all. Not ever. And then she meets a girl called Buffy Summers.
The one where Rose Tyler is a potential Slayer, and Buffy Summers still has an apocalypse to avert. Loosely based on the events of BTVS Season 7.





	1. vampires in the cellar

Rose Tyler’s day had gotten off to unremarkable start, with an unremarkable breakfast followed by an unremarkable bus ride to her unremarkable job. She’d helped about fifty people locate the restroom. She’d folded about fifty _thousand_ crumpled shirts and put them away. 

All in all, nothing remotely interesting had happened. Nothing ever happens, until she goes down to the basement at Henrik’s and finds vampires instead of the guy she’d been looking for.

Rose looks at them.

The vampires look at Rose.

They don’t look much like the ones Rose has seen in movies. First off, they’re wearing clothes similar to her own, or older. Second, they’re ugly as hell, with yellow eyes and bumpy, overlarge foreheads. Nothing like Lestat. Third, they’re— _moving toward me?_

_They’re definitely moving toward me._

“You’re not supposed to be here,” Rose says, her voice shaking slightly. She takes a step backward, and then another.

They’re horrific in the dim basement lighting; their distorted foreheads and low snarling seem _so real_. They seem—

_Don’t be absurd_ , Rose thinks to herself.

But she takes another step back.

“This will be too easy,” one of the vampires says, baring his teeth. His voice is growly, too: it doesn’t sound human.

_It’s because of all the makeup_ , Rose thinks desperately.

“No one here to help you?” This is addressed at Rose.

Rose keeps backing up, but she hits a wall. She’s surrounded, and her thoughts are speeding up, becoming more and more incoherent. _What the hell is going on? Where’s the joke? Why am I—when will—this can’t be—_

And then someone else is beside her. No—in front of her. No—on her _other_ side. Rose whips around to see the new arrival send three vampires flying with a jump and a flying kick.

One manages to dodge the kick and lunges at the girl, but she… she…

_What_ did _she do? What the hell just happened? What the_ hell _was that sound? Where did he go?!_

“What? No warm welcome for me?”

This is Flying-Kick Girl, addressing… not Rose, apparently. She’s still facing the remaining vampires.

“Slayer,” one of them growls, a trace of alarm in his voice.

“ _Slayee_ ,” the girl says, and Rose sees it this time: the wooden stake, sharpened to a deadly point. It pierces his chest and he crumples into a pile of dust with the same dreadful sound Rose had heard before.

The vampires aren’t paying any mind to Rose anymore, all their attention fixed on the other girl. She’s outnumbered five to one now.

_Four to one_ , as she kicks one woman into a broken shelf, and she turns to dust like the other two.

Rose could leave, but the thought doesn’t even occur to her. She watches as the girl takes out one more vampire, and then another, until—

—until the last one kicks the stake from her hand.

She wrestles with him on the ground. She’s strong— _impossibly so_ —but he’s enormous: at least a foot and a half taller than her, and more than twice her weight. His beefy arm pins her throat to the ground and she struggles to breathe, kicking uselessly in an attempt to free herself.

Without thinking too hard about it, Rose rushes to the broken shelf and—bracing herself for splinters—breaks it off with her elbow.

“Catch!” she calls, and throws it.

The girl catches it, lunges upward as forcefully as she can to head-butt the big guy in the face, and takes advantage of his dazed confusion to stab the board through his heart.

The vampire bites the dust.

“Thanks for that,” the girl says, standing up and brushing the dust from her clothes. She looks shockingly unruffled for someone who’s just turned seven vampires to dust and very nearly gone the same way. “Rose, right? I’m Buffy.”

“Were they—?” Rose asks weakly, fighting to hold on to her last remnant of doubt.

“Vampires. Yeah.” Buffy looks at her and tilts her head a little bit. “I like your accent. It’s different than Giles’s. Less… book-y.”

“Who’s—” Rose starts to ask, before changing track suddenly. “Wait. How d’you know my name?”

“It’s a long story. Well, not that long, actually. You’re part of a long line of… Geez, how _does_ Giles do this? You’re supposed to come with me. To learn about vampires. Say, you haven’t seen any creepy eyeless dudes with knives lurking around, have you?”

Rose gapes at her.

“I _really_ hope that’s a no. Anyway, we need to go.”

“Go where?”

“Sunnydale.” Buffy looks apologetic.

“Sunny-who?”

“It’s in California.”

“I’m not—why would I go with you to _California_? I don’t even _know_ you.”

“Well, I did just do the whole… saving-your-life thing.”

“And you’d be dead if it wasn’t for me, too!”

“That’s a new answer. Never gotten that one before. Look, Rose. I’m sorry. I know it’s a lot to ask, but the truth is? Your life is in danger. And you’ll be safest if you’re with me.”

“Why can’t you stay here? And _why_ am I in danger? Didn’t you just… get rid of it?”

“What, those guys? Just your regular, lowlife, everyday vamps. The thing that’s coming is a lot worse. And it’s coming after you because you’re Chosen. You have… a gift. Or, you might. But you’re not the only one. There are lots of girls just like you, and I can only be in one place at a time. So for now, it’s Sunnydale or bust.”

“I can’t just _leave_. My mum’s here. And my boyfriend. Mickey. I can’t just _leave_ them.”

“I know,” Buffy says. “But you have to.”

—

“We really do need to go,” Buffy says, as they ride the elevator back up to the main floor. “But I get that you have a lot of questions. I’ll buy you a coffee or something. Or-or a tea. Do you drink coffee in England?”

“Why wouldn’t we drink coffee?” Rose asks, frowning.

“Giles is English and he hates coffee,” Buffy says, as the elevator opens and she begins to stride toward the double doors of the department store.

Rose hurries to keep up with her. “Who’s Giles?”

“My Watcher. He told that yours is…” Buffy looks at the smudged writing on her hand. “John Smith?”

“What’s a Watcher? Are you just making things up to mess with me? Did Mickey put you up to this?”

Buffy groans a little. “Oh, this would _so_ be easier if you were less like me. Have you even met a John Smith?”

“No,” Rose says, dumbfounded. “Or—I dunno. It’s a common name, isn’t it?”

Side-by-side, Buffy and Rose each push open one of the double doors and make their way out into the street.

“Alright,” Buffy says. “This is your turf, English girl. Where’s the nearest coffee shop? We have a lot to talk about.”

—

Rose’s questions are mostly about what the hell she’s supposed to tell her mum, if she were—hypothetically—to head off to California with a complete stranger.

“I mean, I don’t even know for sure there’s anything dangerous here, do I? I haven’t seen anything unusual.”

Buffy gives her a look, and Rose backtracks a little. “Except for those… those people in the basement. But I’m _fine_. Really.”

They’d both ordered coffees and stirred in cream and sugar. Rose takes a sip of hers now, a demonstration of just how fine she is.

“I told you: that wasn’t the danger. Although, I did… kinda know it might be. _A_ danger, that is.”

“How? And _how_ ’d you know I was there?”

“I didn’t!” Buffy says. “Or, I didn’t til I got here. Giles told me there was a rumor of a nest in the basement at your work.” Stopping Rose mid-inquiry, she adds: “The Watcher’s Council keeps tabs on where all the potential Slayers live—kinda creepy, I _know_. So I got here, thinking, hey, I’ll talk to you after work instead of showing up at your house because I thought it might be a _little_ less stalker-y, and there you were, going down to Vampire Town just before I cleared the place out.

“Anyway, the nest was why I got sent here instead of Giles. And also ‘cause he’s busy recruiting someone in New Zealand, or New Guinea, or-or somewhere warm that’s an island. Normally he’s the one that does this.”

“Does what?”

“The whole destiny pep talk. ‘One girl in all the world,’” Buffy intones exaggeratedly. “‘She alone will have the strength and’—you get the idea.”

“Why is there only one Slayer?”

Buffy shrugs. “Don’t ask me. Well. Actually. Now that you mention it… There are actually two. Which is… also kind of a long story. I sorta… died a little bit when I was in high school, and another Slayer was called, and _oohh_ -kay, you really don’t need to know all this right away.” Buffy takes a breath and drinks deeply from her coffee mug.

The prospect of heading off to another country to learn how to fight vampires is actually very intriguing to Rose, if she’s honest. It would beat the day-to-day dreariness of London and her dead-end job. Unfortunately, it’s also the sort of thing you can’t tell your mum without sounding like you’ve gone completely mental. Besides, _Rose_ isn’t even convinced that she hasn’t lost her mind.

_Hang on. What did she just say?_

“You _died_? ‘A _little bit_ ’? How do you die ‘ _a little bit_ ’?”

Buffy shuffles uncomfortably. Rose supposes that dying must be a touchy subject, which is… understandable, really.

“’S’okay,” she adds quickly. “You don’t have to talk about it. Um… What did the other girls tell their parents?”

“I’m not sure,” Buffy says. “It’s complicated. Like I said, this is Giles’s thing. I guess…. some of them grew up with their Watcher. Some of them were away at school. Could you just tell her you’ve gone travelling?”

“She’s gonna hate me for this,” Rose mumbles.

—

“You’re going _travelling_?” Jackie asks, voice rising with every word. “With ‘a friend’? A friend I’ve _never_ met? You can’t just leave your job. And how are you going to pay for it? I thought you were saving to move out.”

“I am,” Rose says. “But I need to do this, Mum. I can’t just… sit around all day. There’s so much to see out there. “

“Are you sure there not so much of some _one_ you need to see? D’you remember when you dropped out of school to run off with that Jimmy?”

Rose sighs. “It’s nothin’ like that. And you can meet her, if you like.”

“ _Her_?”

“My friend.”

“She’s _here_? Why is she outside?”

Rose sighs and goes to open the door, gesturing for Buffy to come in.

“This is Buffy, Mum. She’s from California. She’s in London to, um—study.”

Jackie contemplates Buffy with some degree of surprise. “Well,” she says. “I’m glad some of your friends are still in school. It’s nice for you to have some good influences in your life.” She turns to Buffy. “What do you study, sweetheart?”

“I, uh. Psychology!” Buffy says quickly, eyes wide. “With the id, and the—the reading, and the long essays about the… occipital lobe.”

“It’s all very interesting,” Rose says, cutting in before Jackie can ask any more questions. “Really, we’d love to stay and chat, but we’ve got to go.”

“What, you’re leaving _now_?”

“There's no time like the present."

“Have you even told Mickey what you’re doing?” Jackie calls after Rose, as she leaves the living room. “You’re not just gonna go prancing off without telling anyone, are you?”

“I’ll leave him a note!”

—

Buffy follows Rose into her bedroom, where she stuffs a few choice articles of clothing into a large backpack.

“Is that all you’re bringing?” Buffy asks.

Rose looks around the room, and her eyes catch on the photo of her parents on her dresser. They sit side-by-side, baby Rose smiling contentedly between the pair of them. Buffy looks at it, too, her expression telling: she understands.

Rose adds the photo to her bag.

“I’m ready,” she says.

She’s off to Sunnydale.


	2. ghouls in the cargo hold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a short update, but it's gonna go somewhere. i promise!

“I’ve never been on a plane before,” Rose tells Buffy, trying to remain politely conversational in the wake of her irrational decision to skip the country. “It’s bigger than I imagined.”

“It’s as big as my house,” Buffy agrees. “If my house were… flattened into one long house.”

They fall into an awkward silence then, which doesn’t break til the flight attendant comes by with teeny plastic cups and a cart full of canned drinks.

Rose—sitting by the window, engrossed by the sight of the clouds underneath them—turns back around and accepts the Coke that Buffy passes over to her. Her leg jitters nervously as she pulls the little table down from the back of the seat in front of her and sets the cup on it.

“You doin’ okay there?” Buffy asks.

“Fantastic,” Rose says. She offers Buffy a tentative smile. “This is sort of exciting, isn’t it? Getting away?”

Buffy shrugs. “I wouldn’t know. I’m just going home.”

“What’s it like?”

“What’s what like?”

“Your home.”

“ _Crowded_ ,” Buffy says. She seems tired. “Girls packed in like little sardine girls. Stuff everywhere.” She frowns. “What is a sardine, anyway?”

“Um. It’s a fish, yeah?”

Buffy makes a face, her nose crinkling. “I mean: it’s fun if you look at it like it’s a giant sleepover. Less fun when you remember a lurking faceless evil wants you dead.”

“Hang on. I thought I was supposed to be safe from that—that _faceless evil thing_ if I went with you?”

Buffy looks uncomfortable. “Saf _er_. Complete safety not entirely guaranteed.”

“Great.”

Rose is pretty sure that piece of information should make this less of a thrill for her, but her whole body is singing up here, soaring above the clouds and across the ocean. It’s incredible just to be going _somewhere_. No matter the circumstance. 

“Is it always this dangerous?” Rose asks.

“Kinda,” Buffy answers. She smiles ruefully.

Rose can’t help it. She grins back.

—

For the rest of flight, Buffy tells Rose about the people of Sunnydale. Giles: English, Watcher, stuffy, knows a lot of things, owns many books. Willow: Wiccan best friend. Xander: normal-guy best friend. Dawn: normal-girl sister who didn’t always used to be a normal girl, ‘cept it’s kind of a long story. Anya: ex-demon. Rose listens attentively, charmed by the simultaneous fondness and exasperation in Buffy’s voice as she speaks about her family.

“And then there’s... the ones who left,” Buffy finishes quietly.

Rose can’t quite make out what feelings contort Buffy’s face now. Grief? Loss? Definitely. But something else, too. A fear or sadness unrelated to death.

“What happened?”

But Buffy shakes her head. “Doesn’t matter. Hey—I think we’re landing soon.”

Rose doesn’t press for answers. If Buffy wants to share, she’ll do so in time.

—

The Bringers come from the cargo hold: they must have boarded in London along with Buffy and Rose.

It’s a terrifying sight, really: their emergence onto the baggage carousel. (Two of them, every bit as creepy as Buffy had said.)

Buffy fights them off with some poor soul’s suitcase—by the end, the front of it’s been completely shredded by the Bringers’ daggers.

“Sorry!” Buffy says to no one in particular as she dumps the suitcase back onto the carousel. She looks from it, to the dead Bringers, to the terrified bystanders, to Rose. 

Without speaking, they agree that now would be a good time to run.


	3. poltergeist in the pantry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> some dialogue - including buffy's end speech - is from the episode Bring on the Night.

The Summers household is a flurry of activity—girls in the living room, playing cards; girls in the bathroom, fixing their hair; girls in the kitchen, eating all of Buffy’s cereal. It’s a minute before anyone even notices that she’s home.

“I brought someone with me!” Buffy calls up the stairs. “Hellooo?”

“Ah, Buffy!” Giles says, emerging from around the corner with a group of Potentials in tow. “How did it go? And you must be Rose. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Mr. Giles, Buffy’s Watcher.”

“You don’t need to call him Mister,” Buffy informs Rose as she shakes Giles’ hand. “No one really does.”

“Yes, _thank you_ , Buffy.”

Rose smiles. “’S good to meet you too, Mr. Giles.”

Giles gives Buffy the tiniest look of triumph. To Rose, he adds: “Welcome to Sunnydale. I hope you find your stay…. well, if not enjoyable, perhaps _eventful_ is a better word.”

“I’m sure I will. Buffy told me all about the monsters here.”

“You’re gonna be staying with the girls in the living room,” Buffy tells Rose. She sounds apologetic again. “The bedrooms are all full.”

“That’s fine,” Rose says.

“There’s a space next to me,” one of the girls behind Giles says. “By the couch. I’m Martha, by the way.” She steps forward and offers Rose her hand, and a radiant smile. “It’s nice to have another Brit around here.”

Martha’s words start an avalanche of introductions, and within minutes Rose has been led through the house, learning two-dozen different names.

She loves this already. There’s so much energy in this house, it buzzes in the air like electricity. Rose does her best to remember every face, every name, as she’s introduced to girls from all over the world.

To her disappointment, she also finds very quickly that she’s _exhausted_.

They’d left London at around 6 PM, and it had taken more than 12 hours to get to Buffy’s house—what with the distraction at the airport and all.

“What time is it?” she asks Buffy.

“I dunno.” Buffy checks the clock on the microwave. “Almost 11 PM.”

“That’s wild,” Rose says. “I feel like I’ve travelled in time.”

“I just feel… blurgh.” Buffy makes a face. “Jet-laggy. Think I’m gonna retreat for the night. You alright?”

“Yeah,” Rose says, “’m fine.”

Buffy nods, business-like. “Good. Great. Okay.” She turns to the group. “I’m going to bed. See you all tomorrow.”

There’s a chorus of mumbled ‘ _g’night_ ’s and then everyone disperses, some heading upstairs, others heading to the bathroom to brush their teeth. Rose finds Martha in the living room, rolling out a blanket in front of the couch where another girl has already fallen asleep.

“Hey.”

“Hey!” Martha moves over a little, allowing Rose to pass between her and the coffee table. “Rose, right?”

“That’s right. And you’re Martha, yeah?”

“I am. Here,” she pats the empty space at Rose’s feet. “Sit down. Did you bring a blanket?”

“Yeah.” Rose lays the blanket she’d stuffed in her bag down next to Martha, and Martha passes her one of the pillows from the couch, careful not to disturb the sleeping girl.

“So—you came here with _Buffy_ ,” Martha says. “That’s amazing. Most of us have hardly even met her yet—Giles sent her to get you just a couple days after I got here. So? What’s she like?”

A couple girls on the other side of the coffee table stick their heads up to hear her answer.

“Uh,” Rose starts uncertainly. “Well. She’s really strong. She sort of… saved me from some vampires at my work. Actually, I helped a little, but—”

“So you’ve seen a vampire?” one of the other girls—Vi—asks. “A real, live vampire?”

“Yeah, there were a bunch of them. They—”

“Was it scary?” another girl interrupts, eyes wide.

“Yeah. Kind of. I mean, I wasn’t sure they were real at first.”

A little overwhelmed by the attention, Rose answers a few more questions about her day with Buffy before excusing herself from the conversation and curling up next to Martha, making herself as comfortable as she can on the hard floor.

The questions make Roes realize that, even after coffee and an eleven-hour plane ride together, she’d learned very little about Buffy at all. The Slayer had deflected any sort of topic that came close to being too personal, sharing more information about her friends than herself.

 _She’s keeping herself distant_ , Rose thinks. _Maybe this ‘faceless evil’ really is coming for us. Maybe Buffy knows we won’t all make it through._

With that sobering thought in mind, Rose finally falls asleep.

She dreams of wolves and a bright, yellow light.

—

Martha’s already up when Rose awakens, sunlight streaming through the window and warming her skin. Tossing off the blanket and sitting up, she rubs her eyes and runs a hand through her tousled hair. It’s a mess, but she’ll tackle it later.

“Dawn,” Buffy is saying, when Rose arrives in the kitchen doorway. “Did you take my zebra cakes?”

“Why are you asking me?” Dawn retorts. Only it sounds more like, “wire ‘ou ashkin me?” because her mouth is full of toast. She swallows before speaking again. “Anyone could’ve taken them. And I mean—you never know. All sorts of weird stuff goes on in this town. Maybe we have a poltergeist.”

Buffy stares at her.

“I can’t _believe_ you never read _Harry Potter_ ,” Dawn says, rolling her eyes and leaving the room with her toast. “Oh. Hey, Rose,” she adds, as she passes her.

“Hi, Dawn.”

“Rose!” Buffy says. “I’m can’t believe you managed to sleep so long. I could hear the racket in the kitchen from upstairs.”

“I must’ve been tired,” Rose says, stifling a yawn.

“Well… you’re welcome to have some breakfast. Encouraged, even! ‘Cause… breakfast is the most important meal of the— _God_ I’m too tired to speechify right now. Have some cereal.” Buffy indicates the boxes on the island. “Or there’s toast on the counter. And bananas. Eat whatever you want—that’s what everyone else does. But if you find my cakes, or the poultry-guy that took them...” She sighs. “I’ll just add them to the grocery list.”

Buffy scribbles something on a note on the fridge and then exits the kitchen, still mumbling to herself.

Rose eats toast with marmalade for breakfast. (She doesn’t find the missing cakes.)

—

All the Potentials cram into the basement for a meeting, in which Buffy gets her speech on. There’s lots of talk about strength, and power, and dangerous things, and—oh yeah. How Buffy has to die before any one of them gets called.

At the end, Buffy hands the group over to Anya, who—in theory—will share some of her knowledge about demons and the mythology surrounding the First Evil.

Rose follows Buffy up the stairs.

“Buffy,” Rose says. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

Buffy turns around, surprised. “Uh. Sure. ‘Course. Did you have a question about something?” She stops in the kitchen and pours herself a glass of orange juice.

“Not exactly. I just… wanted to say thank you.”

Buffy eyes widen a little. “Hmm? For what?”

“For what you said downstairs. Well—not the whole thing about you dyin’, ‘cause I don’t want to think about that. But for the other stuff. About, you know… how even though we don’t have Slayer strength, we’re all really strong. About how… we have a mission. My whole life, I’ve been standing in one place. It means a lot to think that I could do something that matters.”

“That’s… wow.” A tiny crease of confusion worries Buffy’s eyebrows, like she isn’t used to being thanked for her words. “I’m glad,” she says finally. “I keep thinking that you must all hate me. You know, I talk and I talk about doom and gloom, but… it’s our reality.” She finally smiles, tentatively. “It’s nice to hear you got something good from all of that blabbing I did.”

Giles enters the kitchen then, clearly preoccupied. “Buffy—where was it that you first met the Three? Oh,” he adds, noticing Rose there. “Good morning, Rose. Shouldn’t you be downstairs?”

“Rose and I were talking,” Buffy says.

“But, um. We were done.” Rose smiles at Giles. “I’ll just… leave you two alone. ‘S good to see you, Mr. Giles.”

—

After the second basement meeting, the group heads back upstairs to invade Buffy’s kitchen again. Kennedy and Rose eat cereal while Martha helps Annabelle make hot chocolate on the stove. Others line up to use the toaster.

When Giles and Buffy get back from wherever they’d been, Buffy looks a little worse for wear.

“Oh my God,” Martha says, clasping a hand to her mouth.

“Are you alright?” Kennedy asks. “You look…”

“Oh. Yeah, I’m okay,” Buffy says. “I just got into a fight, is all.” She turns to Giles expectantly. “You wanna tell me with what?”

After some initial hesitation about involving the whole group in this conversation, Giles explains to Rose and the others that Buffy had fought a Neanderthal-like vampire called a Turok-Han: a “primordial, ferociously powerful killing machine.”

“Did you slay it?” Annabelle asks Buffy, worried.

“No. It’s still out there, somewhere.”

—

The First Evil wants to end the Slayer line, and the Turok-Han—like the Bringers—is an agent of the First. Therefore, the logical conclusion drawn by everyone is that it will come right for them and attempt to kill them all.

“That’s a cheery thought,” Martha says, as she accepts a stake from Xander. “Thanks, Xander.”

“Of course, milady. Annnd, one for you.” He offers the last stake to Rose, who takes it and spins it around in her hands.

On the other side of the room, Kennedy is loading up with a crossbow. Rose watches her out of the corner of her eye, feeling suddenly powerless.

Buffy had stabbed the Neander-vamp with a stake and it hadn’t died, and she has super strength. What use will any of them be, no matter what they wield?

But on the other hand, she understands the intention here. Better to be armed with something than nothing at all. Holding a weapon gives the illusion of strength. Rose imagines that it must be comforting for some of the girls here to have that.

Martha had moved to the window while Rose was thinking, and she turns back around now, her face filled with worry.

“Guys,” she says. “Annabelle—she’s gone.”

“Gone how?” Buffy asks.

“She just… ran. She’s gone.”

—

Buffy had run after Annabelle, and Willow, Xander, and Giles had run after Buffy. They’d returned with a badly beaten Slayer, and no Annabelle.

The dining room is filled with uncertainty. The Potential Slayers, Rose and Martha included, had all gathered around the table, listening as Buffy’s friends quietly discuss her situation.

Rose overhears the words “internal bleeding” and “Buffy _was_ our plan.”

“What if she can’t beat it?” Martha whispers to Rose.

Rose shakes her head. “She’s got to be able to.” She’d seen Buffy in action: she was incredible. Flawless, even. “We just… we just have to give her time. She’s never seen one of these things before, yeah? She just doesn’t know how to fight it yet.”

“You’re right,” Buffy says, entering the room. “I don’t know how to fight it.”

Everyone turns to look at her. Rose frowns worriedly—she didn’t know that Buffy had been listening.

She looks bad: face bloody and bruised. There are also deep circles under her eyes.

_When’s the last time she got a full night’s sleep?_

“We don't know when it'll come. We can't run, can't hide, can't pretend it's not the end, 'cause it is. Something's always been there to try and destroy the world. We've beaten them back, but we're not dealing with them anymore. We're dealing with the reason they exist. Evil. The strongest. The First.

“I'm beyond tired. I'm beyond scared. I'm standing on the mouth of Hell, and it is gonna swallow me whole. And it'll choke on me. We're not ready? They're not ready. They think we're gonna wait for the end to come, like we always do. I'm done waiting. They want an apocalypse? Oh, we'll give 'em one. Anyone else who wants to run, do it now. 'Cause we just became an army. We just declared war. From now on, we won't just face our worst fears, we will seek them out. We will find them, and cut out their hearts one by one, until the First shows itself for what it really is. And I'll kill it myself. There is only one thing on this earth more powerful than evil, and that's us. Any questions?”

**Author's Note:**

> New characters and tags will be updated as the story moves along! Rating subject to change.
> 
> You can find me on Tumblr @angelandfaith.


End file.
